Jolly takes reins at new Cadena Group

Cadena Group has announced the appointment of Chris Jolly as its first CEO. Jolly was previously a non-executive director of Cadena Group, which is the parent company of Pradera, the specialist retail fund manager. Cadena Group's formation follows the reorganisation of Cadena Holdings and Pradera last month, which saw Cadena Group become the parent of both companies.

Following the reorganisation, Cadena Group will focus on expanding the Pradera retail fund management brand around the world as well as building a non-retail fund management business under the Cadena brand.

Cadena Group said it aims to be a key actor in the evolution of the fund management model, growing the business through a combination of step changes such as outright acquisition of existing fund management businesses and the pursuit of strategic partnerships and the backing and incubation of new real estate fund management ideas.

Pradera is a specialist fund manager of retail property, has been ranked at the top of the IPD rankings and is seen as a 'best in class' fund manager. It currently has approximately EUR 1.2 bn of investor equity invested by 56 institutional investors and has about EUR 2 bn of assets under management. Cadena Group and its subsidiaries operate from nine offices throughout the UK, Europe and the Far East employing approximately 80 staff.

Jolly has over 30 years experience spanning finance and property, which has seen him work in both investment and commercial banks, where he developed his expertise in mergers and acquisitions, the debt and equity capital markets and bank lending. Jolly first became involved in the property sector in 1988 and has either advised or raised finance for most of the major property companies and institutions in the UK. In addition Jolly has developed extensive expertise of the property markets in Europe, the US and Asia.